Stock vs Modded McLaren’s: How Much Does a Tune and Cat Delete Help?

One thing we can always count on from the DragTimes channel is great footage of some wicked exotics being put through the paces and driven the way the were meant to be. Brooks, the channel’s host, is always beating up on his McLaren 720S, and he always manages to find some of the baddest rides to come along for a little track testing or impromptu trips to Mexico for some roll racing.

This particular video was taken during a trip to the track, where Brooks has his bone stock McLaren out to see what it will lay down through the quarter at famed Palm Beach International Dragway. Joining the fun is a DME-tuned 720S that has had the cats removed to bump the horsepower to around 900 on 109 octane fuel. The question was not if these upgrades would help the car on the track, but how much, and that question was answered definitively on the car’s second pass.

After Brooks, whose car has become a sort of a benchmark after lining up alongside so many different cars, lays down a target of 9.92 at 140.9 MPH to give the DME car a target to shoot for. On the first pass, however, things don’t quite go as planned when the car sounds like it shifts well short of redline, resulting in a subpar 10.46 elapsed time at 139 mph. They brought the car back around for another shot and this time the shifts were on point, with the scoreboard lighting up a solid 9.59 at 145 MPH. The difference in ET is awesome for sure, but seeing a full 5 MPH gain in the quarter from a tune, exhaust and cat delete is truly impressive.

These two cars are insane, whether we’re talking about the bone stock one or the modded version, and it’s awesome to see them on the drag strip laying it down to see what they’re capable of. Hopefully we’ll see more of them and maybe even some more mods on the DME car to see if they can push that car closer to the 8 second zone.